The reform of workers’ compensation to address psychological safety

Mr. Mookhey will establish plans to use more health and safety laws at work to prevent psychological injuries, instead of relying only on the state workers’ compensation system in the main response.

In a ministerial statement, the treasurer will also advise the Parliament that:

• If requests continue to increase at recent installments, the state insurer is expected to make 80,000 people to make psychological injury applications in the next five years,
• For each 1 dollar required for the care of injured workers, the main state -of -state workers’ compensation scheme has only 85 cents in assets and
• Without reform, the first for companies facing any claims against them will increase by 36 % in the three years by 2027-28.

Mr. Mookhey will present a Business NSW consulting program and NSW unions, as well as other interested parties, to create the reform. The model it will present will see NSW:

1. Offer to the NSW industrial relations Commission a jurisdiction of intimidation and harassment before requesting the hearing of these requests first before a request can be followed for compensation. This will allow the Commission to approach psychological dangers, encouraging a prevention culture.
2. Define psychological injury, as well as “reasonable management action”, to give the workers and companies the certainty – instead of allowing the definitions to remain the subject of disputes.
3. Align the deficiency thresholds of whole people to the standards set in South Australia and Queensland.
4. Adopt some of the anti-fraud measures recently adopted by Commonwealth to protect the national disability insurance scheme.
5. Reply to the retired recommendations the judge of the Supreme Court Robert McDougall, made in his independent review of the Saure NSW works.

The treasurer worked closely with the Minister of Industrial Relations Sophie Cottsis and the Minister of Emergency Services Jihad Dib.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:

“Our workers’ compensation system was designed at a time when most people did physical work – on farms and yards, in me or in factories.

“A system that addresses all the dangers to the psychological work as well as the physical dangers, must change.

“Allowing the system to remain on the autopilot will capture only several employees, employers and the state of NSW to a fate that we can avoid.

“We must build a suitable system for the purpose – one that reflects modern jobs and modern working modalities.”